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Forensic Identification: A Timeline
BCE Evidence of fingerprints in early paintings & rock carvings made by prehistoric humans.
Pre-historic picture writing of a hand with ridge patterns is discovered in Nova Scotia.
In ancient Babylon, fingerprints are used on clay tablets for business transactions.
700 In ancient China, thumb prints are found on clay seals.
1000 QUINTILIAN, an attorney in the Roman courts, shows that bloody palm prints are meant to frame a blind man of his mother´s murder.
1600
1686 Marcello MALPIGHI , a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, notes in his treaties; ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints. He makes no mention of their value as a tool for individual identification. A layer of skin is named after him; "Malpighi layer", which is approximately 1.8mm thick.
1800
1800s Thomas BEWICK, an English naturalist, uses engravings of his own fingerprints to identify books he published.
1813 Mathieu Bonaventure ORFILA (1787-1853), professor of medicinal and forensic chemistry at Univ. of Paris, publishes Traite des Poisons. Considered the father of modern toxicology. Significant contributions to development of tests for the presence of blood in a forensic context. Credited as the first to attempt the use of a microscope in the assessment of blood and semen stains.
1823 John Evangelist PURKINJI, a professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, publishes his thesis discussing 9 fingerprint patterns, but he too makes no mention of the value of fingerprints for personal identification.
1830s
Lambert Adolphe Jacques QUÈTELET, a Belgian statistician, provides the foundation for BERTILLON ’s work by stating his belief that no two human bodies were exactly alike.
1842 Edgar Allan POE publishes "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", the first fictional detective story, starting the symbiotic interplay between the development of genuine Forensic Science and the development of the fictional detective or criminalist..
1858 Sir William HERSHEL, Chief Administrative Office, Bengal India, first uses fingerprints on native contracts.
1862 The Dutch scientist J. (Izaak) Van DEEN develops a presumptive test for blood using guaiac, a West Indian shrub.
1863 The German scientist Christian Friedrich SCHÖNBEIN first discovers the ability of hemoglobin to oxidize hydrogen peroxide making it foam. This results in first presumptive test for blood.
1870s Dr. Henry FAULDS, British Surgeon-Superintendent of Tsukiji Hospital in Tokyo, takes up the study of "skin-furrows" after noticing finger marks on specimens of "prehistoric"pottery. A learned and industrious man, Dr. FAULDS not only recognizes the importance of fingerprints as a means of individualization, but devises a method of classification as well.
1877 Thomas TAYLOR, microscopist to U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that markings of the palms of the hands and the tips of the fingers could be used for identification in criminal cases. Although reported in the American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science and Scientific American, the idea is apparently never pursued from this source.
1879 Rudolph VIRCHOW, a German pathologist, is one of the first to both study hair and recognize its limitations.
1880s
Dr. Henry FAULDS forwards an explanation of his fingerprint classification system to Sir Charles DARWIN, who is too ill to be of assistance. DARWIN passes the material to his cousin Francis GALTON.
Dr. FAULDS publishes an article in the Scientific Journal "Nautre", discussing fingerprints as a means of personal identification, and the use of printers ink as a method for obtaining such fingerprints. He is the first to explicitly recognize the value of latent prints left at crime scenes.
1882 Gilbert THOMPSON of the U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico, uses his own fingerprints on a document to prevent forgery. This is the first known use of fingerprints in the United States.
1883 In Mark TWAIN´s book, "Life on the Mississippi", a murderer is identified by the use of fingerprint identification. In a later book by Mark Twain, "Pudd'n Head Wilson", there is a dramatic court trial on fingerprint identification.
Alphonse BERTILLON, a French police employee, identifies the first recidivist based on his invention of anthropometry.
1887 Arthur Conan DOYLE publishes the first Sherlock Holmes story in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of London.
1891
Juan VUCETICH, and Argentine Police Official, makesthe first criminal fingerprint identification. He was able to identify a woman by the name of Rojas, who had murdered her two sons, and cut her own throat in an attempt to place blame on another. Her bloody print was left on a door post, proving her identity as the murderer. Argentina is the first country to replace anthropometry with fingerprints.
Hans GROSS, examining magistrate and professor of criminal law at the University of Graz, Austria, publishes Criminal Investigation, the first comprehensive description of uses of physical evidence in solving crime. Gross is also sometimes credited with coining the word criminalistics.
Sir Francis GALTON, a British anthropologist and a cousin of Charles DARWIN, publishes his book, "Fingerprints", establishing the individuality and permanence of fingerprints and a first classification system..
GALTON identifies the characteristics by which fingerprints can be identified (minutia), basically still in use today, and often referred to as GALTON´s Details.
1892-1894
Alfred DREYFUS is convicted of treason based on a mistaken handwriting identification by BERTILLON.
1896 Sir Edward Richard HENRY developes the print classification system that would come to be used in Europe and North America. He publishes Classification and Uses of Finger Prints.
1900
Karl LANDSTEINER first discovers human blood groups and is awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1930. Max RICHTER adapts the technique to type stains. This is one of the first instances of performing validation experiments specifically to adapt a method for forensic science. LANDSTEINER´s continued work on the detection of blood, its species, and its type forms the basis of practically all subsequent work.
1901
Sir Edward Richard HENRY is appointed head of Scotland Yard and forces the adoption of fingerprint identification to replace anthropometry.
1902 Henry P. DeFORREST pioneers the first systematic use of fingerprints in the United States by the New York Civil Service Commission.
R. FISCHER describes the system of furrows on the red part of human lips - a fact which was later to form a basis for cheiloscopy.
1903 Professor R.A. REISS, professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a pupil of BERTILLON, sets up one of the first academic curricula in forensic science. His forensic photography department grows into Lausanne Institute of Police Science.
The New York State Prison system begins the first systematic use of fingerprints in United States for criminal identification.
At Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, Kansas, Will WEST, a new inmate, is initially confused with a resident convict William WEST using anthropometry. They are later (1905) found to be easily differentiated by their fingerprints
1904 Oskar and Rudolf ADLER develop a presumptive test for blood based on benzidine, a new chemical developed by Merk.
LOCARD publishes L'enquete criminelle et les methodes scientifique, in which appears a passage that may have given rise to the forensic precept that “Every contact leaves a trace.”
1905 American President Theodore ROOSEVELT establishes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
1910
Edmund LOCARD, successor to LACASSAGNE as professor of forensic medicine at the University of Lyons, France, establishes the first police crime laboratory.
1912 Masaeo TAKAYAMA develops another microscopic crystal test for hemoglobin using hemochromogen crystals.
Edmond LOCARD (1877-1966) demonstrates the value of poreoscopy in the criminal trial of BOUDET and SIMONIN.
1915
Leone LATTES, professor at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Turin Italy, develops the first antibody test for ABO blood groups. He first uses the test in casework to resolve a marital dispute. He publishes L’Individualità del sangue nella biologia, nella clinica, nella medicina, legale, the first book dealing not only with clinical issues, but heritability, paternity, and typing of dried stains.
International Association for Criminal Identification, (to become The International Association of Identification (IAI), is organized in Oakland, California.
1918 Edmond LOCARD first suggests 12 matching points as a positive fingerprint identification.
1920s
Edmond LOCARD enunciates the Locard's Exchange Principle.
Calvin GODDARD, with Charles E. WAITE, Phillip O. GRAVELLE, and John H FISHER, perfect the comparison microscope for use in bullet comparison.
1921
SCHULLER suggests that frontal sinuses can be used for identification.
1924 August VOLLMER, as chief of police in Los Angeles, California, implements the first U.S. police crime laboratory.
Saburo SIRAI, a Japanese scientist, is credited with the first recognition of secretion of group-specific antigens into body fluids other than blood.
1927 LANDSTEINER and LEVINE first detect the M, N, and P blood factors leading to development of the MNSs and P typing systems.
1929 K. I. YOSIDA, a Japanese scientist, conducts the first comprehensive investigation establishing the existence of serological isoantibodies in body fluids other than blood.
1930 AMERICAN JOURNAL of POLICE SCIENCE is founded and published by staff of GODDARD's Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Chicago. In 1932, it is absorbed by Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, becoming the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science.
1931 Franz Josef HOLZER, an Austrian scientist, working at the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the University of Innsbruck, developes the absorbtion-inhibition ABO typing technique that becomes the basis of that commonly used in forensic laboratories. It is based on the prior work of SIRACUSA and LATTES.
POOLE suggests that frontal sinus pattern is different even in identical twins, thus giving immense support to the idea of positive identification by frontal sinus pattern mooted a decade earlier by SCHULLER.
1932 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime laboratory is created.
1938 Paul KIRK assumes leadership of the criminology program at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1945, he formalizes a major in technical criminology.
1940 LANDSTEINER and A.S. WIENER first describe Rh blood groups.
1941 Murray HILL of Bell Labs initiates the study voiceprint identification. The technique is refined by L.G. KERSTA.
1945 Frank LUNDQUIST, working at the Legal Medicine Unit at the University of Copenhagen, develops the acid phosphatase test for semen.
1946 MOURANT first describes the Lewis blood group system.
1950 R.R. RACE first describes the Kell blood group system.
M. CUTBUSH, and colleagues first describe the Duffy blood group system.
August VOLLMER, chief of police of Berkeley, California, establishes the School of Criminology at the University of California at Berkeley. Paul KIRK presides over the major of criminalistics within the school.
Max FREI-SULZER, founder of the first Swiss criminalistics laboratory, develops the tape lift method of collecting trace evidence.
1951 The American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) is formed in Chicago, Illinois. The group also begins publication of the Journal of Forensic Science (JFS).
F. H. ALLEN and colleagues first describe the Kidd blood grouping system.
1953 Paul KIRK publishes Crime Investigation, one of the first comprehensive criminalistics and crime investigation texts that encompass theory in addition to practice.
James WATSON and Francis CRICK publish landmark paper identifying the structure of DNA.
1961 Hungary becomes the first country in Europe to carry out research in the subject of lip prints.
The International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS) is formed. It is unique in that it is an association in name only. It has no members, no permanent secretariat and no budget.
Y. TSUCHIHASHI and T. SUZUKI start a three year study, examining the lip prints of 1364 persons at the Department of Forensic Odontology at Tokyo University. They will come to the conclusion that lip prints are unique to each individual. The science of Cheiloscopy gets an unprece-dented boost.
1971 CULLIFORD publishes The Examination and Typing of Bloodstains in the Crime Laboratory, generally accepted as responsible for disseminating reliable protocols for the typing of polymorphic protein and enzyme markers to the United States and worldwide.
1975 The Federal Rules of Evidence, originally promulgated by the U.S. Supreme Court, are enacted as a congressional statute. They are based on the relevancy standard in which scientific evidence that is deemed more prejudicial than probative may not be admitted.
1977 Fuseo MATSUMUR, a trace evidence examiner at the Saga Prefectural Crime Laboratory of the National Police Agency of Japan, notices his own fingerprints developing on microscope slides while mounting hairs from a taxi driver murder case. He relates the information to co-worker Masato SOBA, a latent print examiner. SOBA would later that year be the first to develop latent prints intentionally by “Superglue®” fuming.
The FBI introduces the beginnings of its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) with the first computerized scans of fingerprints.
1978 Brian WRAXALL and Mark STOLOROW develop the “multisystem” method for testing the PGM, ESD, and GLO isoenzyme systems simultaneously. They also develop methods for typing blood serum proteins such as haptoglobin and Gc.
1980 American geneticists discover a region of DNA that does not hold any genetic information and which is extremely variable between individuals.
1983 The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is first conceived by Kerry MULLIS, while he is working at Cetus Corporation. The first paper on the technique was not published until 1985.
1984 Sir Alec JEFFREYS a research fellow at the Lister Institute, Leicester University, discovers a method of identifying individuals from DNA - Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). He dubs it 'DNA Fingerprinting' - a revolutionary new technique in Forensic Science, which is perhaps the greatest single Forensic Discovery of the 20th Century.
1985 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) passed. This piece of legislation governs the handling of suspects and prisoners.
Police in the UK first use forensic DNA profiling.
1986 Kerry MULLIS discovers Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method of replicating particular regions of a DNA molecule.
The Human Genetics Group at Cetus Corporation, led by Henry ERLICH, develops the PCR technique for a number of clinical and forensic applications. This results in development of the first commercial PCR typing kit specifically for forensic use, HLA DQa (DQA1), about 2 years later.
1987 In People v. PESTINIKAS, Edward BLAKE first uses PCR-based DNA testing (HLA DQa) , to confirm different autopsy samples to be from the same person. The evidence is accepted by a civil court. This is also the first use of any kind of DNA testing in the United States.
In the UK, police use DNA profiling in the celebrated PITCHFORK case to clear a seventeen year old suspect of two rape-murders. Police collect blood samples from over 5,000 local men to identify the perpetrator, Colin PITCHFORK.
Also in the UK, Robert MELIAS is convicted of rape. He becomes the first person to be convicted of a crime on the basis of DNA evidence.
DNA profiling is introduced for the first time in a U.S. criminal court. Based on RFLP analysis performed by Lifecodes, Tommy Lee ANDREWS is convicted of a series of sexual assaults in Orlando, Florida.
New York v. CASTRO is the first case in which the admissibility of DNA is seriously challenged. It sets in motion a string of events that culminate in a call for certification, accreditation, standardization, and quality control guidelines for both DNA laboratories and the general forensic community.
LEWELLEN, McCURDY, HORTON, and ASSELIN, LESLIE, McKINLEY publish milestone papers introducing a novel procedure for the analysis of drugs in whole blood by homogeneous enzyme immunoassay (EMIT).
1988-1989
In the USA, Gary DOTSON becomes the first person to have a conviction overturned on the basis of DNA evidence. DOTSON has served 8 years of a 25-50 year sentence for rape.
The Federal Government and several States and Territories begin developing regulatory standards for DNA collection and handling procedures.
Australia's first court case involving DNA evidence. In an ACT court, Desmond APPLEBEE is convicted of three counts of sexual assault. APPLEBEE changes his defense from "I wasn't there" to "the woman consented" after a blood sample matches him to DNA extracted from blood and semen on the victim's clothes.
In Victoria, police secure the conviction of George KAUFMAN who raped sixteen women over a four year period in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs. Confronted with DNA evidence, KAUFMAN confesses.
1990 K. KASAI and colleagues publish the first paper suggesting the D1S80 locus (pMCT118) for forensic DNA analysis. D1S80 is subsequently developed by Cetus (subsequently Roche Molecular Systems) corporation as a commercially available forensic DNA typing system.
1992 In response to concerns about the practice of forensic DNA analysis and interpretation of the results, the National Research Council Committee on Forensic DNA (NRC I) publishes DNA Technology in Forensic Science.
Thomas CASKEY, professor at Baylor University in Texas, and colleagues publish the first paper suggesting the use of short tandem repeats for forensic DNA analysis. Promega Corporation and Perkin-Elmer Corporation in collaboration with Roche Molecular Systems independently develop commercial kits for forensic DNA STR typing.
1993 National Institute of Forensic Science commences operations. Amongst its roles are the development of national standards of quality control and accreditation of forensic laboratories throughout Australia.
In DAUBERT et al. v. Merrell DOW, a U.S. federal court relaxes the FRYE standard for admission of scientific evidence and conferre on the judge a “gatekeeping” role. The ruling cites Karl POPPER's views that scientific theories are falsifiable as a criterion for whether something is “scientific knowledge” and should be admissible.
1994 Roche Molecular Systems (formerly Cetus) releases a set of five additional DNA markers (“polymarker”) to add to the HLA-DQA1 forensic DNA typing system.
1995 The world's first national DNA database commences operations in the UK on 10 April
1996 In response to continued concerns about the statistical interpretation of forensic DNA evidence, a second National Research Council Committee on Forensic DNA (NRC II) is convened and publishes The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence.
Rodney WINTERS is convicted of the rape and murder of a woman at South Australia's Edinburgh Air Force base 14 years earlier. After DNA profiling matches him to semen found on the dead woman, WINTERS confesses.
The FBI introduces computerized searches of the AFIS fingerprint database. Live scan and card scan devices allow interdepartmental submissions.
In the USA, mitochondrial DNA evidence is used in a court for the first time. Paul WARE is convicted of the rape and murder of a four year old girl after mitochondrial DNA profiling matches him to a hair found on the body of the child.
Police services endorse the establishment of a national criminal DNA database and form a working party.
1998 In the USA, the FBI sets up the National DNA Index System, enabling city, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies to compare DNA profiles electronically.
1999 The FBI upgrades its computerized fingerprint database and implements the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), allowing paperless submission, storage, and search capabilities directly to the national database maintained at the FBI.
In the UK, the Forensic Science Service announces that the number of DNA profiles of suspects and convicted criminals on the national DNA database has reached one million or roughly one third of the estimated criminally active population.
Pre-historic picture writing of a hand with ridge patterns is discovered in Nova Scotia.
In ancient Babylon, fingerprints are used on clay tablets for business transactions.
700 In ancient China, thumb prints are found on clay seals.
1000 QUINTILIAN, an attorney in the Roman courts, shows that bloody palm prints are meant to frame a blind man of his mother´s murder.
1600
1686 Marcello MALPIGHI , a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, notes in his treaties; ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints. He makes no mention of their value as a tool for individual identification. A layer of skin is named after him; "Malpighi layer", which is approximately 1.8mm thick.
1800
1800s Thomas BEWICK, an English naturalist, uses engravings of his own fingerprints to identify books he published.
1813 Mathieu Bonaventure ORFILA (1787-1853), professor of medicinal and forensic chemistry at Univ. of Paris, publishes Traite des Poisons. Considered the father of modern toxicology. Significant contributions to development of tests for the presence of blood in a forensic context. Credited as the first to attempt the use of a microscope in the assessment of blood and semen stains.
1823 John Evangelist PURKINJI, a professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, publishes his thesis discussing 9 fingerprint patterns, but he too makes no mention of the value of fingerprints for personal identification.
1830s
Lambert Adolphe Jacques QUÈTELET, a Belgian statistician, provides the foundation for BERTILLON ’s work by stating his belief that no two human bodies were exactly alike.
1842 Edgar Allan POE publishes "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", the first fictional detective story, starting the symbiotic interplay between the development of genuine Forensic Science and the development of the fictional detective or criminalist..
1858 Sir William HERSHEL, Chief Administrative Office, Bengal India, first uses fingerprints on native contracts.
1862 The Dutch scientist J. (Izaak) Van DEEN develops a presumptive test for blood using guaiac, a West Indian shrub.
1863 The German scientist Christian Friedrich SCHÖNBEIN first discovers the ability of hemoglobin to oxidize hydrogen peroxide making it foam. This results in first presumptive test for blood.
1870s Dr. Henry FAULDS, British Surgeon-Superintendent of Tsukiji Hospital in Tokyo, takes up the study of "skin-furrows" after noticing finger marks on specimens of "prehistoric"pottery. A learned and industrious man, Dr. FAULDS not only recognizes the importance of fingerprints as a means of individualization, but devises a method of classification as well.
1877 Thomas TAYLOR, microscopist to U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that markings of the palms of the hands and the tips of the fingers could be used for identification in criminal cases. Although reported in the American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science and Scientific American, the idea is apparently never pursued from this source.
1879 Rudolph VIRCHOW, a German pathologist, is one of the first to both study hair and recognize its limitations.
1880s
Dr. Henry FAULDS forwards an explanation of his fingerprint classification system to Sir Charles DARWIN, who is too ill to be of assistance. DARWIN passes the material to his cousin Francis GALTON.
Dr. FAULDS publishes an article in the Scientific Journal "Nautre", discussing fingerprints as a means of personal identification, and the use of printers ink as a method for obtaining such fingerprints. He is the first to explicitly recognize the value of latent prints left at crime scenes.
1882 Gilbert THOMPSON of the U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico, uses his own fingerprints on a document to prevent forgery. This is the first known use of fingerprints in the United States.
1883 In Mark TWAIN´s book, "Life on the Mississippi", a murderer is identified by the use of fingerprint identification. In a later book by Mark Twain, "Pudd'n Head Wilson", there is a dramatic court trial on fingerprint identification.
Alphonse BERTILLON, a French police employee, identifies the first recidivist based on his invention of anthropometry.
1887 Arthur Conan DOYLE publishes the first Sherlock Holmes story in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of London.
1891
Juan VUCETICH, and Argentine Police Official, makesthe first criminal fingerprint identification. He was able to identify a woman by the name of Rojas, who had murdered her two sons, and cut her own throat in an attempt to place blame on another. Her bloody print was left on a door post, proving her identity as the murderer. Argentina is the first country to replace anthropometry with fingerprints.
Hans GROSS, examining magistrate and professor of criminal law at the University of Graz, Austria, publishes Criminal Investigation, the first comprehensive description of uses of physical evidence in solving crime. Gross is also sometimes credited with coining the word criminalistics.
Sir Francis GALTON, a British anthropologist and a cousin of Charles DARWIN, publishes his book, "Fingerprints", establishing the individuality and permanence of fingerprints and a first classification system..
GALTON identifies the characteristics by which fingerprints can be identified (minutia), basically still in use today, and often referred to as GALTON´s Details.
1892-1894
Alfred DREYFUS is convicted of treason based on a mistaken handwriting identification by BERTILLON.
1896 Sir Edward Richard HENRY developes the print classification system that would come to be used in Europe and North America. He publishes Classification and Uses of Finger Prints.
1900
Karl LANDSTEINER first discovers human blood groups and is awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1930. Max RICHTER adapts the technique to type stains. This is one of the first instances of performing validation experiments specifically to adapt a method for forensic science. LANDSTEINER´s continued work on the detection of blood, its species, and its type forms the basis of practically all subsequent work.
1901
Sir Edward Richard HENRY is appointed head of Scotland Yard and forces the adoption of fingerprint identification to replace anthropometry.
1902 Henry P. DeFORREST pioneers the first systematic use of fingerprints in the United States by the New York Civil Service Commission.
R. FISCHER describes the system of furrows on the red part of human lips - a fact which was later to form a basis for cheiloscopy.
1903 Professor R.A. REISS, professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a pupil of BERTILLON, sets up one of the first academic curricula in forensic science. His forensic photography department grows into Lausanne Institute of Police Science.
The New York State Prison system begins the first systematic use of fingerprints in United States for criminal identification.
At Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, Kansas, Will WEST, a new inmate, is initially confused with a resident convict William WEST using anthropometry. They are later (1905) found to be easily differentiated by their fingerprints
1904 Oskar and Rudolf ADLER develop a presumptive test for blood based on benzidine, a new chemical developed by Merk.
LOCARD publishes L'enquete criminelle et les methodes scientifique, in which appears a passage that may have given rise to the forensic precept that “Every contact leaves a trace.”
1905 American President Theodore ROOSEVELT establishes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
1910
Edmund LOCARD, successor to LACASSAGNE as professor of forensic medicine at the University of Lyons, France, establishes the first police crime laboratory.
1912 Masaeo TAKAYAMA develops another microscopic crystal test for hemoglobin using hemochromogen crystals.
Edmond LOCARD (1877-1966) demonstrates the value of poreoscopy in the criminal trial of BOUDET and SIMONIN.
1915
Leone LATTES, professor at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Turin Italy, develops the first antibody test for ABO blood groups. He first uses the test in casework to resolve a marital dispute. He publishes L’Individualità del sangue nella biologia, nella clinica, nella medicina, legale, the first book dealing not only with clinical issues, but heritability, paternity, and typing of dried stains.
International Association for Criminal Identification, (to become The International Association of Identification (IAI), is organized in Oakland, California.
1918 Edmond LOCARD first suggests 12 matching points as a positive fingerprint identification.
1920s
Edmond LOCARD enunciates the Locard's Exchange Principle.
Calvin GODDARD, with Charles E. WAITE, Phillip O. GRAVELLE, and John H FISHER, perfect the comparison microscope for use in bullet comparison.
1921
SCHULLER suggests that frontal sinuses can be used for identification.
1924 August VOLLMER, as chief of police in Los Angeles, California, implements the first U.S. police crime laboratory.
Saburo SIRAI, a Japanese scientist, is credited with the first recognition of secretion of group-specific antigens into body fluids other than blood.
1927 LANDSTEINER and LEVINE first detect the M, N, and P blood factors leading to development of the MNSs and P typing systems.
1929 K. I. YOSIDA, a Japanese scientist, conducts the first comprehensive investigation establishing the existence of serological isoantibodies in body fluids other than blood.
1930 AMERICAN JOURNAL of POLICE SCIENCE is founded and published by staff of GODDARD's Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Chicago. In 1932, it is absorbed by Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, becoming the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science.
1931 Franz Josef HOLZER, an Austrian scientist, working at the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the University of Innsbruck, developes the absorbtion-inhibition ABO typing technique that becomes the basis of that commonly used in forensic laboratories. It is based on the prior work of SIRACUSA and LATTES.
POOLE suggests that frontal sinus pattern is different even in identical twins, thus giving immense support to the idea of positive identification by frontal sinus pattern mooted a decade earlier by SCHULLER.
1932 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime laboratory is created.
1938 Paul KIRK assumes leadership of the criminology program at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1945, he formalizes a major in technical criminology.
1940 LANDSTEINER and A.S. WIENER first describe Rh blood groups.
1941 Murray HILL of Bell Labs initiates the study voiceprint identification. The technique is refined by L.G. KERSTA.
1945 Frank LUNDQUIST, working at the Legal Medicine Unit at the University of Copenhagen, develops the acid phosphatase test for semen.
1946 MOURANT first describes the Lewis blood group system.
1950 R.R. RACE first describes the Kell blood group system.
M. CUTBUSH, and colleagues first describe the Duffy blood group system.
August VOLLMER, chief of police of Berkeley, California, establishes the School of Criminology at the University of California at Berkeley. Paul KIRK presides over the major of criminalistics within the school.
Max FREI-SULZER, founder of the first Swiss criminalistics laboratory, develops the tape lift method of collecting trace evidence.
1951 The American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) is formed in Chicago, Illinois. The group also begins publication of the Journal of Forensic Science (JFS).
F. H. ALLEN and colleagues first describe the Kidd blood grouping system.
1953 Paul KIRK publishes Crime Investigation, one of the first comprehensive criminalistics and crime investigation texts that encompass theory in addition to practice.
James WATSON and Francis CRICK publish landmark paper identifying the structure of DNA.
1961 Hungary becomes the first country in Europe to carry out research in the subject of lip prints.
The International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS) is formed. It is unique in that it is an association in name only. It has no members, no permanent secretariat and no budget.
Y. TSUCHIHASHI and T. SUZUKI start a three year study, examining the lip prints of 1364 persons at the Department of Forensic Odontology at Tokyo University. They will come to the conclusion that lip prints are unique to each individual. The science of Cheiloscopy gets an unprece-dented boost.
1971 CULLIFORD publishes The Examination and Typing of Bloodstains in the Crime Laboratory, generally accepted as responsible for disseminating reliable protocols for the typing of polymorphic protein and enzyme markers to the United States and worldwide.
1975 The Federal Rules of Evidence, originally promulgated by the U.S. Supreme Court, are enacted as a congressional statute. They are based on the relevancy standard in which scientific evidence that is deemed more prejudicial than probative may not be admitted.
1977 Fuseo MATSUMUR, a trace evidence examiner at the Saga Prefectural Crime Laboratory of the National Police Agency of Japan, notices his own fingerprints developing on microscope slides while mounting hairs from a taxi driver murder case. He relates the information to co-worker Masato SOBA, a latent print examiner. SOBA would later that year be the first to develop latent prints intentionally by “Superglue®” fuming.
The FBI introduces the beginnings of its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) with the first computerized scans of fingerprints.
1978 Brian WRAXALL and Mark STOLOROW develop the “multisystem” method for testing the PGM, ESD, and GLO isoenzyme systems simultaneously. They also develop methods for typing blood serum proteins such as haptoglobin and Gc.
1980 American geneticists discover a region of DNA that does not hold any genetic information and which is extremely variable between individuals.
1983 The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is first conceived by Kerry MULLIS, while he is working at Cetus Corporation. The first paper on the technique was not published until 1985.
1984 Sir Alec JEFFREYS a research fellow at the Lister Institute, Leicester University, discovers a method of identifying individuals from DNA - Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). He dubs it 'DNA Fingerprinting' - a revolutionary new technique in Forensic Science, which is perhaps the greatest single Forensic Discovery of the 20th Century.
1985 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) passed. This piece of legislation governs the handling of suspects and prisoners.
Police in the UK first use forensic DNA profiling.
1986 Kerry MULLIS discovers Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method of replicating particular regions of a DNA molecule.
The Human Genetics Group at Cetus Corporation, led by Henry ERLICH, develops the PCR technique for a number of clinical and forensic applications. This results in development of the first commercial PCR typing kit specifically for forensic use, HLA DQa (DQA1), about 2 years later.
1987 In People v. PESTINIKAS, Edward BLAKE first uses PCR-based DNA testing (HLA DQa) , to confirm different autopsy samples to be from the same person. The evidence is accepted by a civil court. This is also the first use of any kind of DNA testing in the United States.
In the UK, police use DNA profiling in the celebrated PITCHFORK case to clear a seventeen year old suspect of two rape-murders. Police collect blood samples from over 5,000 local men to identify the perpetrator, Colin PITCHFORK.
Also in the UK, Robert MELIAS is convicted of rape. He becomes the first person to be convicted of a crime on the basis of DNA evidence.
DNA profiling is introduced for the first time in a U.S. criminal court. Based on RFLP analysis performed by Lifecodes, Tommy Lee ANDREWS is convicted of a series of sexual assaults in Orlando, Florida.
New York v. CASTRO is the first case in which the admissibility of DNA is seriously challenged. It sets in motion a string of events that culminate in a call for certification, accreditation, standardization, and quality control guidelines for both DNA laboratories and the general forensic community.
LEWELLEN, McCURDY, HORTON, and ASSELIN, LESLIE, McKINLEY publish milestone papers introducing a novel procedure for the analysis of drugs in whole blood by homogeneous enzyme immunoassay (EMIT).
1988-1989
In the USA, Gary DOTSON becomes the first person to have a conviction overturned on the basis of DNA evidence. DOTSON has served 8 years of a 25-50 year sentence for rape.
The Federal Government and several States and Territories begin developing regulatory standards for DNA collection and handling procedures.
Australia's first court case involving DNA evidence. In an ACT court, Desmond APPLEBEE is convicted of three counts of sexual assault. APPLEBEE changes his defense from "I wasn't there" to "the woman consented" after a blood sample matches him to DNA extracted from blood and semen on the victim's clothes.
In Victoria, police secure the conviction of George KAUFMAN who raped sixteen women over a four year period in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs. Confronted with DNA evidence, KAUFMAN confesses.
1990 K. KASAI and colleagues publish the first paper suggesting the D1S80 locus (pMCT118) for forensic DNA analysis. D1S80 is subsequently developed by Cetus (subsequently Roche Molecular Systems) corporation as a commercially available forensic DNA typing system.
1992 In response to concerns about the practice of forensic DNA analysis and interpretation of the results, the National Research Council Committee on Forensic DNA (NRC I) publishes DNA Technology in Forensic Science.
Thomas CASKEY, professor at Baylor University in Texas, and colleagues publish the first paper suggesting the use of short tandem repeats for forensic DNA analysis. Promega Corporation and Perkin-Elmer Corporation in collaboration with Roche Molecular Systems independently develop commercial kits for forensic DNA STR typing.
1993 National Institute of Forensic Science commences operations. Amongst its roles are the development of national standards of quality control and accreditation of forensic laboratories throughout Australia.
In DAUBERT et al. v. Merrell DOW, a U.S. federal court relaxes the FRYE standard for admission of scientific evidence and conferre on the judge a “gatekeeping” role. The ruling cites Karl POPPER's views that scientific theories are falsifiable as a criterion for whether something is “scientific knowledge” and should be admissible.
1994 Roche Molecular Systems (formerly Cetus) releases a set of five additional DNA markers (“polymarker”) to add to the HLA-DQA1 forensic DNA typing system.
1995 The world's first national DNA database commences operations in the UK on 10 April
1996 In response to continued concerns about the statistical interpretation of forensic DNA evidence, a second National Research Council Committee on Forensic DNA (NRC II) is convened and publishes The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence.
Rodney WINTERS is convicted of the rape and murder of a woman at South Australia's Edinburgh Air Force base 14 years earlier. After DNA profiling matches him to semen found on the dead woman, WINTERS confesses.
The FBI introduces computerized searches of the AFIS fingerprint database. Live scan and card scan devices allow interdepartmental submissions.
In the USA, mitochondrial DNA evidence is used in a court for the first time. Paul WARE is convicted of the rape and murder of a four year old girl after mitochondrial DNA profiling matches him to a hair found on the body of the child.
Police services endorse the establishment of a national criminal DNA database and form a working party.
1998 In the USA, the FBI sets up the National DNA Index System, enabling city, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies to compare DNA profiles electronically.
1999 The FBI upgrades its computerized fingerprint database and implements the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), allowing paperless submission, storage, and search capabilities directly to the national database maintained at the FBI.
In the UK, the Forensic Science Service announces that the number of DNA profiles of suspects and convicted criminals on the national DNA database has reached one million or roughly one third of the estimated criminally active population.
References/Links
http://plaza.ufl.edu/jhefner/forensic_Timeline.pdf
http://forensicsciencecentral.co.uk/history.shtml
http://www.forensicdna.com/timeline.html
http://www.forensictv.net/Downloads/forensic_science/forensic_science_timeline_by_norah_rudin_and_keith_inman.pdf
REFERENCES
Block, E. B., Science vs. Crime: The Evolution of the Police Lab, Cragmont Publications, 1979.
Dillon D., A History of Criminalistics in the United States 1850-1950, Doctoral Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1977.
Else, W. M. and Garrow, J. M., The Detection of Crime, The Police Journal–London, 1934.
Gaensslen, R. E., Ed., Sourcebook in Forensic Serology, Unit IX: Translations of Selected Contributions to the Original Literature of Medicolegal Examination of Blood and Body Fluids, National Institute of Justice, 1983.
Gaensslen, R. E., Sourcebook in Forensic Serology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1983.
Gerber, S. M., Saferstein, R., More Chemistry and Crime, American Chemical Society, 1997.
German, E., Cyanoacrylate (Superglue) Discovery Timeline 1999. http://onin.com/fp/cyanoho.html
German, E., The History of Fingerprints, 1999. http://onin.com/fp/fphistory.html
Kind, S., and Overman, M., Science Against Crime, Aldus Book Limited, Doubleday, US. 1972.
Morland, N., An Outline of Scientific Criminology, Philosophical Library, NY, 1950.
Olsen, R. D., Sr., A Fingerprint Fable: The Will and William West Case, (initially published in: Identification News which became Journal of Forensic Identification, 37: 11, 1987), Kansas Bureau of Investigation. http://www.scafo.org/library/110105.html
Thorwald, J., Crime and Science, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1966, Translation, Richard and Clara Winston.
Thorwald, J., The Century of the Detective, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1964, Translation, Richard and Clara Winston, 1965.
http://forensicsciencecentral.co.uk/history.shtml
http://www.forensicdna.com/timeline.html
http://www.forensictv.net/Downloads/forensic_science/forensic_science_timeline_by_norah_rudin_and_keith_inman.pdf
REFERENCES
Block, E. B., Science vs. Crime: The Evolution of the Police Lab, Cragmont Publications, 1979.
Dillon D., A History of Criminalistics in the United States 1850-1950, Doctoral Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1977.
Else, W. M. and Garrow, J. M., The Detection of Crime, The Police Journal–London, 1934.
Gaensslen, R. E., Ed., Sourcebook in Forensic Serology, Unit IX: Translations of Selected Contributions to the Original Literature of Medicolegal Examination of Blood and Body Fluids, National Institute of Justice, 1983.
Gaensslen, R. E., Sourcebook in Forensic Serology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1983.
Gerber, S. M., Saferstein, R., More Chemistry and Crime, American Chemical Society, 1997.
German, E., Cyanoacrylate (Superglue) Discovery Timeline 1999. http://onin.com/fp/cyanoho.html
German, E., The History of Fingerprints, 1999. http://onin.com/fp/fphistory.html
Kind, S., and Overman, M., Science Against Crime, Aldus Book Limited, Doubleday, US. 1972.
Morland, N., An Outline of Scientific Criminology, Philosophical Library, NY, 1950.
Olsen, R. D., Sr., A Fingerprint Fable: The Will and William West Case, (initially published in: Identification News which became Journal of Forensic Identification, 37: 11, 1987), Kansas Bureau of Investigation. http://www.scafo.org/library/110105.html
Thorwald, J., Crime and Science, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1966, Translation, Richard and Clara Winston.
Thorwald, J., The Century of the Detective, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1964, Translation, Richard and Clara Winston, 1965.